New PC

[Teh Krypt]

Ok at christmas'ish Im going to get a new pc, and hopefully I won't have to upgrade for a while. Im aiming to spend about 1.5grand..

Ok theres www.alienware.co.uk which I think is nice, althought it dosnt fit my needs as the customise thing isnt good enouth. Its just small things like.. you HAVE to have one harddrive and HAVE to have xp installed ect, I have a lot of those things already and only need the performance.

I want people to suggest the pros and cons of different mobos, processors, video cards, ect. I'll have to get new ram too as I currently have SDRam, god knows why .

If you can also, post a web address or price of the part(s). Ty

 

[Teh Krypt]

Was looking at Mirco Direct (dunno how the prices are)

Product Code Description Units Price Quantity Total (Exc VAT)
MOTGIG8KNXP Gigabyte GA8KNXP i875P P4 800FSB each £ 141.00 £ 141.00
VIDATI9800P256A ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256Mb DDR2 each £ 315.00 £ 315.00
MEM512MBPC2100 512MB DDR PC2100 RAM [major brand] each £ 47.00 £ 94.00
FANAKA670CUB Akasa AK670CUB P4 Fan + Blue LED each £ 11.00 £ 11.00
CPUIP44783200 Intel® Pentium® 4 3.2GHz [800MHz] each £ 415.00 £ 415.00

Total: £ 976.00

Without VAT

What else would I need?

 

[SilverHood]

krypt, make a list of what you have

then make a list of what you need

go to a site like dabs, or overclockers, and check the prices

I bought and built my own pc from parts ordered from overclockers

£814 for a top of the range pc (box only). I could have gone for top notch, but spending an extra 500 quid for fluff and marginal perfermance didn't interest me

And if you're buying AMD's, be aware that they're easily overclockable if you buy a decent heatsink / fan / case

 

[evilmonkeh]

dont bother with alien wear, they are mostly hype and very over priced.

either build your self or look at places like www.ndc.co.uk (i got mine there)

 

[Teh Krypt]

Originally posted by SilverHood
krypt, make a list of what you have

then make a list of what you need

go to a site like dabs, or overclockers, and check the prices

I bought and built my own pc from parts ordered from overclockers

£814 for a top of the range pc (box only). I could have gone for top notch, but spending an extra 500 quid for fluff and marginal perfermance didn't interest me

And if you're buying AMD's, be aware that they're easily overclockable if you buy a decent heatsink / fan / case

Well the reason im posting here is all I can do is go off price 'This must be better then this because its dearer' I don't really know the ins and outs, to help anyone who wishs to help me I currently have..

Shit mobo
amd 2000 xp+
80 gig HD
gf4 ti4200 (only 64mb and no tv out 'n shit)
DvD player
CD writer
Sound card
speakers
headset
Well basicly a full pc but I want to
A) Upgrade this by taking all out and puting the new stuff back in this case.
B) Get a new case get the new stuff fited in then put in my HD, OS, drives, cards ect.

Like.. theres 800hmz 500hmz P4's and.. I know the 800 is better but I have no clue what the difference is, if its worth the money. Motherboard im totaly clueless about, I know I want a random 9800 pro tho.. as thats best afink

 

[Cdr]

If you're willing to wait a bit, maybe get a bit more money, go for the new Althon 64s. Apparently they're meant to be very very impressive. Obviously they're gonna cost a fair bit, and you might have to spend half your budget on one, but it'll certainly be futureproof for sometime.

 

[Teh Krypt]

Hmm.. any idea when they will be out?
Also some people have said different parts, there any techies here that can post the whole lot? As I know certain things won't work with others

 

[Cdr]

I believe they're either out at the end of this year, or early 2004. But they are very impressive, with the Athlon64 3200+ being the low end chip.

 

[Jonty]

Just on the Athlon64, the Inquirer have an interesting article. Whether this is accurate or not remains to be seen, but . . .

The Inquirer
The high-end Athlon 64 FX-51 is now expected to sell for as much as $800, while even the "consumer-level" Athlon 64 3200+ will be a $400+ part.

High prices at CPU launch are nothing new, but AMD has already stated they have no intention of offering Athlon 64 parts at the price/performance ratios buyers have come to expect. The philosophy behind this move is two-fold. First, because Athlon 64 is equal in performance to the P4, logic implies that it should be priced equally to the P4. Second, AMD feels that lower prices have actually hurt it in many markets, leading to a belief that because AMD's parts are cheaper, they obviously can't be as good. This is where the "Intel overcharges" belief runs directly into a "You get what you pay for" mentality. To some, AMD is a sign that it is possible to get high-quality hardware at a good price, to others the company's prices are a symbol of its desperation to gain market in spite of their lower quality.

As for your kit, Teh Krypt, I'd probably still choose a 3/3.2Ghz Pentium 4C ('C' stands for 'revision C', and means the CPU supports hyperthreading and an 800Mhz front side bus (FSB), both of which aid performance) at the moment, but I guess we'll know just how good the Athlon64 chips and motherboards are soon enough (try searching these forums to get a better idea of the pros and cons of buying 64bit technology so early).

Just one thing, I would advise against buying the 256Mb Radeon 9800. Firstly, it's very much overpriced. The 128Mb performs almost as well, and comes in far cheaper (and there are no games that will require anything like 256Mb of onboard memory as yet). You could wait for nVidia's new card, the GeForceFX 5950 Ultra, or ATi's 9900 Radeon, both of which will outperform the 9800, but prices will be high and, as yet, there are no firm release dates for either product.

Secondly, since you're getting a powerful system, then you really ought to be looking at at least 512Mb, if not 1Gb, of RAM, preferably 400Mhz (PC3200). Ordinarily this would be overkill, but you seem to have the budget and since the rest of your system is high performance, it seems best your RAM should be too.

I think that's about my two pennies worth for now

Good luck

Edit ~ AMD should release its new chips sometime this month, and Intel shortly after that (although Intel's will not be 64bit as yet)

 

[Will]

For an AMD user, I'll go out on a limb and recommend Jonty's choices. If you are overclocker, thats not the best chip for you to get. But if you were an overclocker, you wouldn't be asking what you have to buy.

I'd go for a GB of RAM, and if your budget can take it, the 9800 Pro (128 like he says).

With the FSB that the P4's run at, I wouldn't go for expensive RAM. The cost is double, and the CAS latency (the reason you pay the difference) really makes no difference compared to the cost savings.

 

[Teh Krypt]

Ok thats good. I prolly won't be getting this until xmas so gives new gfx cards, chips and such a chance to get on the market. About the mobo.....

 

[Ash!]

Originally posted by Cdr
If you're willing to wait a bit, maybe get a bit more money, go for the new Althon 64s. Apparently they're meant to be very very impressive. Obviously they're gonna cost a fair bit, and you might have to spend half your budget on one, but it'll certainly be futureproof for sometime.

Are you going to get any benefit in the forseable future by having the Athlon 64(Opertron). The only decent board out for them is the Asus nForce 3 which is more designed for server systems. Plus the real power of the Athlon 64 will only be realised when there is 64 bit software available. Although agreed they will be futureproof for some years.

I would personaly go for the P4 flavour if money is no object. You are still going to get a few good years out of it

 

[Rubric]

AMD XP3200+ Retail Boxed 400 FSB Barton 512kb L2 Cache Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year onsite Warranty 048376 28 £289.95 £289.95
Asus A7N8X-X SKT A Nforce AGP X8 Sound/usb 2.0 Motherboard 049061 154 £50.70 £50.70
Gainward Geforce Fx 5900 Ultra 8x AGP 256MB Ultra/1600 Xp Golden Sample DVI VIVO Digital video In 051086 5 £355.95 £355.95
2 X Samsung 512mb PC3200 400MHz DDR Original 042026 59 £76.50 £153.00

From

Ebuyer

849.60 Without VAT.